A girl sits on the steps of a porch outside of a middle class home with a cracked sidewalk leading to where her pink vans touched the ground. She smiles lightly, then a grimace crosses her face as she contemplates her next words.
GIRL: In the summer of 2006, we found each other. With him slowly seeping and weaving his way deeper into my life, into my secrets that I didn't have to say out loud for him to know. I couldn't help but notice that he, of all people, deserved more than anything I could provide or give. I second guessed myself constantly, throwing up words that even I didn't understand why I felt. I found him at the city pool, or he found me, more or less. The only girl without two small strips and just a generic pair of shorts and a slightly cropped shirt that ended up showing nothing while I sat on the lawn chair next to the shallow end of the pool. He slid next to me, interrupting my reading.
GIRL picks up a book next to her, and flips to a page that's marked with drawings, words, and shapes, and a string of numbers.
GIRL: This is the page that he started talking to me on, see, I marked it not to remember that day. But to remind me that even though he stopped something good, he started something greater.
SCENE CHANGE
GIRL sits on a lawn chair next to the pool with two towels beneath her, she wears nothing like the other girls who lay out on their stomach making sure everyone gets a good view, she hadn't wished anything bad upon them, if anything she wanted their confidence. Yet of all the girls laying flat, a boy walked up to her and plopped himself in the lawn chair beside
BOY: You swim at all?
GIRL: Nope.
BOY: Any intention?
GIRL holds up her book.
GIRL: Just some light reading?
BOY: Then why the towels?
GIRL: Just in case I ended up changing my mind later in the day.
BOY: I just noticed you looked mad... assumed you were at the pool and couldn't swim or something.
GIRL: I can swim I just don't feel like it today, I'm almost finished.
BOY: What page?
GIRL: 298.
BOY: Well how long is the book?
GIRL flips to the very last page of the actual book.
GIRL: 310.
BOY: Well, you've flipped a page around every five or so minutes, so that's two pages per two minutes and thirty seconds? Which means you have around 30 minutes of reading left, you can't tell me you don't have time at home to finish it.
GIRL: So you've been watching me have you?
GIRL snickers to herself with a slight grin and smiling fading as BOY stutters over his words.
BOY: No I'm not watching you-
GIRL: I'm Lilianne.
LILIANNE interrupts BOY as he tries to continue his sentence over her words.
BOY: I'm Ben.
LILIANNE: Nice to meet you Ben...
LILIANNE writes in her book on the page she stopped on, sets down her book on the towel beneath her chair, swinging her legs over to the side and clasping her hands together.
LILIANNE: So, do you have any other rethinking qualities other than stalking?
BEN laughs.
BEN: I like to read, which I'm taking you do to. I was coming over here to actually tell you that's my favorite book.
LILIANNE laughs lightly while looking down at the ground.
BEN: Is it something I said?
LILIANNE stands up shaking her head and grabbing her things.
LILIANNE: More or less, truth be told I've read this book dozens of times.
LILIANNE walks past BEN as he bites his lip, when she hands the book to him.
LILIANNE: You should read it again, it's worth it.
BEN turned around to watch her walk away with a stride, her undone hair swinging in the back. As he opens up to the page she marked on and sees a number between the lines.
BEN: If this is reading between the lines with girls I want nothing to do with it.
BEN looks at the book, then back up to see her gone. He shoves the book quickly into the crook of his arm and makes his way to his table.
SCENE CHANGE
Back to LILIANNE on her porch smiling at the thought of the memory.
LILIANNE: That was the first time we talked. Later than night he messaged me and matched my energy every time I sent a short response. Whether he knew how to talk to girls and just followed suit so I would be invested in the conversation, or we had a genuine connection I don't know. And I'm happy, so I wouldn't want to know.
LILIANNE'S pink vans swung from the top step, still barely touching the ground, but just enough to scrape the front of them. They were worn out, she looked down with a head tilt and smiled.
LILIANNE: I didn't know if he wanted something more than just love, because from what I had learned that people had a tendency to cover lust, with love. Two very similar feelings, yet such different outcomes of how people last.
